Schools’ syllabus should now include human rights, gender studies and health

Khevna.P.Shah, INN/Bangalore

@Shahkhevna1, @Infodeaofficial

    “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest,” said  Benjamin Franklin.

Over the years education has gone through numerous courses of change. Education doesn’t merely mean bookish knowledge, but also should include practical and critical thinking along with business and street smartness. It should be a medium for the students to survive in the commercial world.

Being a student, there are a lot of subjects that seem to be quite unnecessary and inapplicable in actual life. And now it’s necessary for the institutes to add subjects like mental health, sex education, human rights, and gender studies to their syllabus. As Benjamin Franklin quoted, an investment in knowledge pays the best interest, but only if this investment helps one to survive in the corporate world.

School is the primary education center for the children growing up and most of the knowledge they acquire is from here. Educating the students about the current world issue, gender studies and mental health is now more crucial than history or geography. And yes it is definitely important to learn about the great leaders of the past but along with that strong influential women who contribute to society should also be studied.

Gender studies should be a part of the curriculum as it will help built awareness and appreciation of all the individuals irrespective of gender and the consciousness of equality among children and young people starting from a young age. And a detailed study of ‘human rights in the school curriculum will regard equal opportunities and rights both nationally and internationally will enhance the development of the future generation on a national as well as on an international basis.

According to numerous scientific studies, good health is a state of well-being mentally, psycho-social, and physically. Along with fitness, mental health should be included in the course curriculum. This would not only help to battle high obesity but would also keep a student mentally healthy and fit. It is not a hidden fact that the students face a great deal of pressure due to numerous factors in their lives and exposing the students to the course of mental health would actually help with understanding and cope up with the pressure. And also formal study of mental health would lead to decreased rates of stress-related deaths.

Along with this change, there is a need to bring in a change in the parent’s attitude over education and their obsession with pressurise their children to be all-rounder. Generally, students opting for arts are not considered smart and students opting for science are considered smart and capable among the parents, and it’s high time that this notion should be changed.  And the unwritten rule that most intelligent and driven students study science and engineering, while the ones who are not very academically inclined to pursue humanities, even though it is the study of social sciences that lead to the well-rounded appreciation of contemporary life.

It is important to bring a change in the syllabus that makes a student think out of the box and not restrict his thinking to the books alone. And subjects like mental health, gender equality, and sex education are important along with the existing subjects for a child’s overall growth and development mentally and emotionally